Malaysia hopes to base its trade with Iran on the gold dinar soon as a first step in decreasing dependency on the US dollar in international trade, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

Mahathir, who is also finance minister, was responding to a question at a news conference on whether Malaysia would realise its long-held ambition to start using the dinar this year.

"Well, we hope very soon. Maybe (this year) we'll see whether we can do it with Iran," he said after opening an international convention on the gold dinar which, according to Islamic law, is roughly 4.3 grams in weight.